To Reform is to Destroy; to Destroy is to Reform

Choice of words determines whether we work with or against someone

Different words that describe the same reality can create enemies out of friends.  Take “destroy” and “reform.”  To reform you replace one reality with another.  To end one thing and begin another is an act of destruction.  So reform is destruction, but so, since destruction is always an act of reform, as the former reality inevitably becomes the basis of the new formulation, destruction is a form of reform. 

In comes down to this. We value much of the past.  We acknowledge change in factors beyond our control.  We are always making adjustments, thus always both destroying/reforming, and thus the action that stands accused of destroying is seen by others as valued reform and an act of preservation.

A practical piece of advice?  Certainly, at present, when our rhetoric is heated by partisanship and we feel that the preservation of the past is necessarily for the maintenance of the value of our identity, and that the reform of the past is crucial to the preservation of our institutions, let’s use these terms carefully. 

Perhaps consider this before, next time, you speak about “destroying Capitalism.” 

Surprise!  We might all agree when we call it reform.